One of Friday’s most interesting anecdotal crypto headlines has to do with an unusual route towards hodling.
In some ways, though, the story isn’t all that unusual – for the last few years, as some people hype Bitcoin and others deride it, tech journalists have made a lot of hay out of people who end up getting small bits of cryptocurrency into their holdings, despite their ambivalence or even outright rejection.
Figures like prominent bankers, heads of industry and SEC commissioners will sometimes be known to have tiny bits of Bitcoin or crypto holdings that they acquired as a gift, sometimes a tongue-in-cheek gesture.
That seems to also be the case with Peter Schiff, who as we reported last week, is one of the crypto naysayers who has an affinity for gold as what he considers a ‘real’ asset.
Reporting by William Suberg at Cointelegraph today shows ‘the industry’ sent Schiff donations of BTC cryptocurrency yesterday.
As Suberg’s story points out, holding any amount of Bitcoin seems incongruous with what Schiff has said about the cryptocurrency, for example, in cited remarks during the recent rise of BTC value:
“It doesn’t matter how high the price of Bitcoin rises unless you sell. Every buyer must eventually sell to realize any benefit from the rise.”
That’s really true about anything, though, right?
Some people agree with Schiff that a Bitcoin is something to be spent, and not saved.
Some agree that it lacks inherent value.
Then there’s this from poster Scott Witman commenting on the above story with a pretty cogent rejoinder to Schiff’s criticisms:
“Does Peter mean except for SPENDING it, once it reaches 100,000 per coin, at tiny companies such as AT&T, Whole Foods, Amazon, California Car Dealerships, Crate & Barrel, Nordstrom, Rakuten, or getting Bitcoin from 5,000 Bitcoin ATMs worldwide (about to become millions according to a new deal announced). Other than that I guess he’s right… AT&T and Amazon were wrong… nobody will spend bitcoin! I’m sure Amazon was just being foolish and impulsive. They usually are foolish and unsuccessful.”
Indeed, the potent combination of Bitcoin ATMs and greater institutional buy-in have investors pumped for BTC, regardless of what Schiff or anyone else says.
Keep checking the ticker as Bitcoin value hovers around $11,000 this morning.
